North-West Continent of Americff. 15& 



tioned as a greatful vegetable. Of birds, we saw blue 

 jays, yellow birds, and one beautiful humming-bird; of 

 the first and last, I had not seen any since I had been in 

 the North- West. 



Wednesday 12. The weather was the same as yester- 

 day, and we proceeded between three and four in the 

 morning. We took up the net which we had set the pre- 

 ceding evening, when it contained a trout, one white fish, 

 one carp, and three jub. The lake is about two miles 

 in length, East by South, and from three to five hundred 

 yards wide. This I consider as the highest and Southern- 

 most source of the Unjigah, or Peace River, latitude 54. 

 24. North, longitude 121. West of Greenwich, which, af- 

 ter a winding course through a vast extent of country, re- 

 ceiving many large rivers in its progress, and passing 

 through the Slave Lake, empties itself into the Frozen 

 Ocean in 70. North latitude, and about 1 35. West longitude. 



We landed and unloaded, were we found a beaten path 

 leading over a low ridge of land £>f eight hundred and 

 seventeen paces in length to another small lake. The dis- 

 tance between the two mountains at this place is about a 

 quarter of a mile, rocky precipices presenting themselves 

 on both sides. A few large spruce trees and liards were 

 scattered over the carrying-place. There were also wil- 

 lows along the side of the water, with plenty of grass and 

 weeds. The natives had left their old canoes here, with 

 baskets hanging on the trees, which contained various 

 articles. From the latter I took a net, some hooks, a 

 goat's horn, and a kind of wooden trap, in which, as our 

 guide informed me, the ground-hog is taken, I left, how- 

 ever, in exchange, a knife, some fire-steels, beads, awls, 

 Sec. Here two streams tumble down the rocks from the 

 right, and lose themselves in the lake which we had left ; 

 while two others fall from the opposite heights, and glide 

 into the lake which we were approaching ; this being the 

 highest point of land dividing these waters, and we are 

 now going with the stream. This lake runs in the same 

 course as the last, but is rather narrower, and not more 

 than half the length. We were obliged to clear away some 

 floating drift-wood to get to the carrying-place, over which 

 is a beaten path of only an hundred and seventy-five paces 

 long. The lake empties itself by a small river, which, if 

 the channel were not interrupted by large trees that had 

 fallen across it, would have admitted of our canoe with 



